Homework # 2 Ada Ujka

Watching the brief video and the images of Carrie Mae Weems “From Here I Saw What happened and I cried” , takes me back in time while stirring up a lot of emotions. It takes all of us in the past and reminds us of the lost moments. I can see how powerful these images can be and how anyone can choose to interpret them, its strictly personal. With her artistic addition to each image she gives the viewers such a blunt confrontation with history. The images in black and white reflect a sad and the realistic truth of the racism severity. The dehumanization on the photos is unfortunately clear, but  when she adds the red tint to photos it seems to give the images a unique sense of unification.

The choice of red has obviously a special meaning to her, because it represents so many emotions in one single color. The anger, the passion and the blood, are all extreme feelings that meet in one image. The addition of text to the already powerful images makes so vivid and outrageous at the same time.  It is clear that the subjects on the prints are completely dehumanized and lack the individual power. What she does with the words across the images is as if these subjects are being vocal. Each image has been carefully labeled with a meaningful emotion.  Her work is so raw and unique, that allows anyone to interpret them subjectively. Her work supports the existence of racism and the social injustice. Through her work I was able to see how powerful photography can be, how colors make such a difference in interpretation, how the shape of the image gives the sense of the past.

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